Yeong-a practiced how to cleanse her soul for the last two years under the guidance of Priest Dae Woo. White magic and black magic weren't different in terms of power but in the scope of their applicability. As a metaphor, it could be compared to a brush that could write on rough surfaces like wood and rock and a fountain pen that could only write on smooth paper.
Yeong-a, an animal ESPer, with Priest Dae Woo's teachings, gained the foundation of a general ESPer that could communicate with every living thing. That's why white magic was called "arts" and black magic was called "spells."
"What did I do?"
The gigantic black leopard scratched the back of his head with his front paw. Only his shape was that of a leopard. His speech and antics remained very human.
"I will tell on you to the monk, grandpa!"
Yeong-a cast him a blaming glance.
"I apologize!"
Kamdoong flailed both front paws. He didn't ever want to be crushed under a rocky mountain and have his cells disintegrated again. The black leopard transformed into a handsome man who looked like a movie star. Kamdoong well understood that humans reacted more to form than essence.
"Jin Soon, why did you call me here when there are no mice to hunt?"
"Mu Ssang must be in some trouble."
Jin Soon sighed, sitting still in a stone chair. She hid her feelings to not worry her family but her heart was scorched with worry.
"Who said that? It is not likely that he will be in trouble," Kamdoong said surely.
No one could ever threaten Mu Ssang. If he really was in trouble, he would have called Garuda and him to aid.
"Mr. Bonipas. Apparently, a recon satellite is following him."
"So what? Mu Ssang told me to protect you."
Kamdoong shook his head. His task was to protect his family, and he didn't possess any means to shoot down a satellite outside the stratosphere. The ELF, the accelerated photon cannon, needed a medium and was only effective against humans. The scope of their effect was minimal and without a medium, they couldn't exact their power.
"There is Garuda."
"I am not sure. I beat up its shell before. Will it heed my words?"
Kamdoong sent out thought waves with a look of dismay on his face.
"Chicken!"
"Charcoal! Why did you call me?"
"How petty!" said Kamdoong in his mind.
Garuda's response was indeed hostile. Whether a human or artificial intelligence, no one would feel good after getting beaten up.
"Mu Ssang is in danger."
"He is not in danger. If he were, he would have called me."
Garuda was stubborn.
"It's driving me crazy. Is it the limit of artificial intelligence?" thought Kamdoong.
Kamdoong clicked his tongue. An AI wouldn't worry about a danger that was not present in the here and now. Only humans did such a thing. Kamdoong looked back at Yeong-a. She was the only human who could communicate with Garuda with her epidium genes.
"Uncle Dimanche, is Mu Ssang in trouble?"
"Yeah, Garuda should go save him but it is being stubborn."
Kamdoong told on Garuda to her as if being out of character. It was the result of spending so much time amongst humans.
"The duck? Where is it?"
To Yeong-a, Garuda was but a duckling with big eyes.
"It must be sleeping in the lake."
Kamdoong pointed at Lake Yoa.
"Mu Ssang said sleeping all the time will make one reincarnate as a cow in the next life."
Yeong-a looked at the lake with eyes full of worry. Her cute big-eyed duckling shouldn't turn into a cow.
"So, call it now. The strong Chicken should be able to help your brother," Kamdoong said pleadingly.
"I see."
Yeong-a raised her arms. Unlike other animals, the duckling had no visible mind. She needed to send her thoughts. With an animal, she could communicate by tuning into their brain wave frequency. But to access Garuda's artificial intelligence, her brain waves should match the pattern stored in its memory.
"What are you up to, Duckling?"
"Hey, little human!"
The horn on Garuda's head shone. This young female was the only human who could communicate with it other than Mu Ssang. The bottom of the lake squirmed and a golden light spread all around. The swimming fish hurriedly scattered.
Lake Yoa was a dead lake despite its clear water. Not even a common aquatic insect could be seen. The nomads and cattle who drank from it died. The deadly gas, brought by the wind, from the lake made the indigenous people flee the area. The cause was the sulfur dioxide accumulated on the bottom of the lake.
It is said the lucky get luckier. The bionic robot Garuda was simultaneously a vermin remover and an air purifier subsisting on tritium and toxins. It absorbed all the hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide that had accumulated for tens of millions of years.
With the toxic sulfuric compounds gone, fish and aquatic lifeforms became more and more abundant in Lake Yoa. Within mere two months, since Garuda took shelter in the lake, the lake of death became the lake of life, thus continued the miracle of Dubaiburupa.
"My name is Yeong-a, not little human."
"I see. Why did you call me!"
"Mu Ssang needs you."
The artificial intelligence compared the imagery of Mu Ssang sent by the girl and stored it in its memory. It needed more nutrition anyway.
"I'm coming!"
The surface of the lake soared like a big ball. The surface broke and golden luminance soared out of it. Garuda flew around the lake. The UMA visual gliding against a full moon was majestic.
"You look great, Duckling!"
Yeong-a jumped, overjoyed.
"Whoa!"
"It's the divine bird of Dubaiburupa!"
"Worship him!"
The fishers and dating couples were ecstatic. With a dragon-like roar, the gigantic 200-meter-long body disappeared in a flash. Novatopia was a land where legends were alive.
"The world will get noisy," Jin Soon muttered.
She wasn't a hustling girl pulling a cart in Jipeun-dari. She was the queen of Novatopia that stood proudly in the midst of a rapidly changing world.
* * *
Mu Ssang sprinted in a straight line through the jungle, relying on the night vision goggles and GPS. Highlands 2,000 meters above sea level interspersed with bottomless ravines unfurled 650 kilometers from Kidumb and Ngpanwaza. Thorny vines and dense shrubs tackled him. Unexpected swamps and cliff faces exhausted him. To save energy, he had to refrain from using Ya'an.
The sound of helicopters echoed in the night sky. Light shone from the eastern sky. He could tell just from the sound of their engine that they were MH-6s and AH-6s Little Birds. The Little Bird was the augmented version of the 500MD, which was used en masse in Korea as well. The transport type was MH-6 and the offensive type was AH-6.
"It's because of that thing."
He spotted the menacing dragonfly hovering high in the sky. It annoyed him, but he didn't have any means to take care of the Black Eye flying 4,000 meters from the ground. He had no idea that Vajra was a lightsaber and a photon cannon as well.
Before he could clearly see the ALU-68D/A7 tube rocket pods mounted on both sides of the underside of the Little Birds, he heard another engine noise from the northwest. Five Gazelles with ridiculous boosters installed behind them appeared. The sky above the Ituri jungle which usually was dead quiet was now bustling with the helicopters that swarmed in.
Five Gazelles and four Little Birds started wrestling 500 meters above the ground. The Gazelle and Little Bird were lightweight offensive helicopters with high mobility. When Gazelles attacked, Little Birds retreated. When Little Birds attacked, Gazelles did. They maintained their formations that revolved in the sky and were about to collide with each other at any moment.
"Hah, they don't need to do that."
Mu Ssang laughed. General Yi Sun-sin was said to fight the Japanese Atakebune with such formations, but he had never heard of such a fight involving helicopters.
"Bonipas must have sent them!'
It would be out of his character if Bonipas didn't do such a thing after getting the coded message. The Gazelles headed for Kalika must have been employed to fend off the Little Birds closing in on Mu Ssang. Both the United States and France needed to avoid direct clashes because they were both NATO members.
Another formation of Little Birds appeared in the eastern sky, changing the headcount ratio from 5:4 to 5:8. Gazelles, now outnumbered, seemed dismayed. Black Mamba squinted. If the Gazelles retreated or were shot down, Sun Woo-hyun and Zulu were going to be in trouble.
"They will wing it."
He assembled the Dragunov, inserting ten-round magazines he normally didn't use. Little Birds were lightweight offensive units but their armor was still strong enough to defend against the Dragunov. The vulnerable areas, such as the fuel tank and engine, were armored with titanium alloy plates, while the main propeller, made of tungsten compound, and windows made of double tempered glass, could withstand bullets. The outer armor made of the aluminum compound was more vulnerable, conversely.
Bullets twice as heavy as normal 7.62mm bullets were inserted in the powder chamber. The bullets in the ten-round magazine were custom-made with depleted uranium.
They were 570 meters away from him. His target was the rivet on the seam of the outer plate under the pilot's seat. Black Mamba was counting on the penetrating power of the depleted-uranium rounds.
A ray of dark red light streaked across the night sky. The first bullet smashed the rivet under the pilot's seat. The subsequent bullets entered the crack of the torn metal plate. Only the god-tier sniper Black Mamba could pull off such a feat.
The second bullet smashed the pilot's console and severed the fuel nozzle under the propeller system. The third bullet pierced the pilot's jaw and exited through the top of his head.
The pilot's soul left his body before he had time to feel pain. The pilot's upper body collapsed to the collective steering system on the left side of his seat. With the fuel supply cut, the propeller system and the engine axis were automatically disconnected but it was too late.
With the pitch angle of the propeller reduced, the Little Bird dropped to the ground. The pilot's forehead pressed the beeper attached to the top part of the steering system.
With its RPM rapidly increasing, the Little Bird hurtled down and exploded when it touched the ground. Only five seconds had passed since Mu Ssang pulled the trigger.
The twelve startled helicopters rose frantically. The five AH-6s faced the ground with a sharp turn.
"Ugh!"
Black Mamba jumped into a crack between giant rocks that he thought was going to use as cover. Dozens of pillars of scarlet fire struck the ground. These were 2.75-inch Hydra rockets in their rocket pods. The 30mm machine guns mounted on the MH-6s supplied additional firepower.
Dozens of rockets and hundreds of machine gun rounds pounded the rocks Mu Ssang hid behind. Shrapnel and pieces of broken rock swirled around. The 2.75-inch rockets could eliminate a tank. The rocks he trusted broke and collapsed against the fierce attack.
"They are quite worked up!"
Mu Ssang knelt without even thinking of sniping another. If he peeked, that would be his last moment.
"Beta, Zulu, Tango. That is the Special Military Advisor. Protect him."
Captain Reimi, the leader of the formation, wriggled his helicopter side to side. He was ordered to eliminate all the factors that undermined the Special Military Advisor's safety. The four offensive Gazelles soared and the transport Gazelles turned toward Kalika.
The tacit truce was broken. Discerning the attack signal, the Little Birds abandoned their formation and spread apart. The Gazelles struck first. The pillars of flame streaked across the night sky. Little Birds scattered like startled wild geese.
An AH-6 that was struck by a rocket exploded magnificently. The belligerent Little Birds opened fire. The pillars of flame streaked the empty space between them but no further casualties happened even though the fight intensified.
The Gazelle and Little Bird were not equipped with nighttime firing control. The pilot needed to pull the trigger relying on night vision. It was not an easy task. Both sides wasted their ammunition and chased each other without getting any results.
The two MH-6s out of their formation continued to shatter the rocks around Mu Ssang relentlessly in the midst of all the mess. The house-sized rock was reduced to wardrobe-sized.
"They are underestimating me!" said Mu Ssang in his mind.
Mu Ssang aimed for his targets in the sky.
The atmosphere shifted.
"What was that?"
Mu Ssang stumbled, pushed by the shockwave.
A deafening roar shook up the night sky. The noise from the 11 helicopters was drowned out by the monstrous roar. Garuda, rapidly accelerating to 50,000 kilometers per hour, arrived at the Bunyakiri corridor in mere five minutes.
Its scouter analyzed the battlefield with beeps.
"10 insects, five square kilometers of area, 0.5 seconds elapsed. The ground cover will be eliminated in five seconds. The likelihood of Mu Ssang's elimination: 55 percent. Wide-range massacre mode: activated!]
Blue electricity buzzed between its two horns and amplified the quantum field. Blue lightning flickered 2,000 meters above the ground.
"Why is it here?"
Mu Ssang's mouth was agape in awe. He thought it might have been a Super Grendel. But it was Garuda.
A superdense quantum field expanded at the speed of light. The white pillar expanded to a diameter of 500 meters and swept the formation of Little Birds. The four Little Birds caught in it were vaporized.
The photon cannon that obliterated the Little Birds struck the jungle's canopy. A circle with a diameter of 1,000 meters was made in the jungle where ash swirled around and the air above the ground shimmered.
"What is that?"
"Retreat immediately."
"Oh my God!"
"God, save the poor little lamb."
The frantic communication of the Little Birds and Gazelles ensued. They were like sparrows faced with a falcon. The surviving helicopters overloaded their boosters.
"Six insects are fleeing. The output amplified 100 percent. To be fired at a narrow-angle to avoid hitting Mu Ssang."
Garuda activated its gravity field and descended to an altitude of 700 meters. Blue lightning began flickering again.
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